I had to cut the 90s shorter to get the straight pieces closer together, but you can stagger the holes in a single piece to get the same effect.

The pvc just lays on the top edge of the pads.

Then I went to the bin (16489-j "junk" subheading A "awsume") and found some handles.

Then make an air tight lid.(figure it out)

Finished cooler looks like this.

I call it the universal cooler cause you just shove the pad side against any opening in a tent, bus, travel trailer, yurt, or playpod and it will cool up to 3000 cubic feet of space. You can even set it on a table outside for use.

Add some foam stickon wheather stripping for a good seal around a window.

Fill it with 7gals. of water for 8hrs. of cooling. So once a day depending on how much you use it.

105ah battery will run this all week on low.

You may have to recharge if you use medium or high speed on the fan.

I'm confident that this will cool even a school bus without useing a genny and its a lot quieter than an air conditioner.

As always I'll try to answer any questions you may have.

(This cooler can be made more affective by widening the body enough to accept 2 vent registers. It will get more air flow and have more evap surface!)

Ok you dont have to have a yurt, but I liked saying it. Swamp cooler 2.0.

I made the box out of some left over material from my tube surround. I dont remember what its called, but its water proof and light. Fiber glass or plastic panels will work if their thick enough, but if you are patient, look in the thrift stores for a plastic or lexan display case with roughly the same dementions. 15x15x24in. Then you wont have to build a box.

The endless breeze fan is awsome. I thought I had a problem with it, but it turns out that I reversed the connection which made the fan run backwards, so it wasnt pushing much air. Now I can feel the breeze from 10ft away when its on low(1.18 amps 250cfm) medium 500cfm 1.68 amps, and high is 900cfm at 2.50 amps. Great for a 12 volt fan. The cheepest price new that I found was $60. Mine was a display and I got it for $25.

1/2in. pvc and three 90s and a cap.

The feed line was a little small till I put a short piece of pvc in the 90. with a little sillycone, its perfect. No need to glue the other pvc parts together.

By folding the pad instead of cutting individual pieces, It gets a snugger fit. The piece of strap keeps the pad snug at the front of the cooler. This is needed because if your fan is real strong, it will try to vacume your pad away from the sides. The pad retains its shape real well, so folding the inside corners is perfect.The black tape is there because I got a little high on the sides with my holes and you want all the air to be drawn through damp pad.

Im waiting for the little bit stronger pump so I can test, but it should work fine...........FIGJAM........Oh .....check rv places to locate this fan. I sillyconed all the joints on the box exept the lid and this unit holds 6 gal. of water. Theres room for a case of pbr in the bottom. I have to check, but I think the water temp when running is close to 40 degrees. Unite dry wieght 13 pounds.

(The only change for this one is to use the register covers on the 3 sides instead of drilling holes.)

The pumps just arrived! I installed one on the new cooler and I cant think of any way it could be more suited to this purpose.

It uses .23amps and has a built in filter. Cost $14.95. Heres a pic of the pad to give an idea of how porse it is.

If you want your controls to be inside your structure cut the box with an extention where you will attatch the fan. this is how I set mine up.

I didnt need an extention. I tried it without the shade clothe first. When I had just the pump on there was minor leaking untill I turned the fan on low and the leaking stopped. If I sand the holes it may stop that entirely as any little snag tends to direct a small leak. And now the best part.....

The cooler on low (1.4 amps with the pump) is setting on the desk in the background and is about 4ft. away, but I couldnt get a good pic of the temp with the cooler in the shot. But damn AM I EVER HAPPY HAPPY WITH THIS THING...............FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGJAM!!!

figjam, what material did you use to make the box for the yurt version. i am having a hard time finding a suitable box. can i make one out of wood and somehow make it waterproof inside (paint? sealer?)

i ordered the 12v fan endless breeze fan and the duracool pads and i will use the pump i already have. looking forward to start the build!! I have decided to built a yurt this year instead of going with the kodiak tent. this would be somewhere 1400 -1600 cf. How large should i make the box (and the area covered with the pad?)

I'm attempting to build a swamp cooler along the lines of the one you built with the Rubbermaid trash can.

What size grills did you use? Were the grills necessary for structural strength or was it more of an aesthetic choice or just as a way to keep the cooler pad inside?

I was thinking I could maybe just use some screen door material I have lying around if the grill wasn't required for structural strength.

Any other tips beyond what you've already shared? I've got most of my materials (pump, trash can, endless breeze fan, etc.) but I haven't actually started cutting anything yet, so any late-breaking "be sure not to do <fill-in-the-blank>" tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks,Klondike

Sorry - haven't checked this thread in awhile. The grills do provide some structural strength, since so much trash can is cut away. They also channel the water back inside the trash can so it won't drip. Home Depot has a good assortment - the size will depend on exactly how much you cut out.

Anyone get super fancy and wire their cooler up with a thermostat? I'm thinking the cooler I'm building to cool my trailer is going to be significantly oversized. Would be nice to not waste battery power running it.

Thanks for the response - I'm still assembling my cooler (have the vent grilles installed, but still need to do most of the rest of the assembly). I was debating whether the side vents were really necessary but decided to go ahead and put all three vents in. I'll post some pictures when I have it all up and running.

HandJamMasterC wrote:Sorry - haven't checked this thread in awhile. The grills do provide some structural strength, since so much trash can is cut away. They also channel the water back inside the trash can so it won't drip. Home Depot has a good assortment - the size will depend on exactly how much you cut out.

Yeah that would be what I did. Was wondering if anyone knew of a decent thermostat though, the only 12V thermostat I can find is a cheap bimetallic thing for an RV (which will do if need be but I'd much prefer a digital one).

Yeah that would be what I did. Was wondering if anyone knew of a decent thermostat though, the only 12V thermostat I can find is a cheap bimetallic thing for an RV (which will do if need be but I'd much prefer a digital one).

Why one that uses power?I'd NOT recommend one of the old bimetallic mercury switch ones, but there are newer ones that use a different type of switch. Check the contact ratings for VAC vs. VDC. But remember, you're not switching a lot of current if you're powering a single van and pump.

Video games are giving kids unrealistic expectations on how many swords they can carry..... but don't harm the red dragon that frequents the area from time to time. He and I have an agreement.

[quote="sjs"]I drilled some holes on the inside of the cooler at the bottom of the "well" under the pad, and as you can see, there's a very steady flow of water out of those holes (indicating that I am achieving good saturation on the pad).

Next stage is getting the power, fans, switches, etc into the lid.[/quote]

Hey Steve! Kent here. Great info! I plan to build one of these for my 6' stretch yurt this year. Will the 5-gallon cooler cool that space well enough?

I had an idea about your portable cooler... (which I am REALLY looking forward to trying, your suits last year were very effective!)

The water might start sloshing around a bit while being pulled across a bumpy playa. Similar to car gas tanks, adding some dividers with holes would reduce the sloshing. Thin plastic sheets cut to form an egg-crate and put in the bottom. Added benefit- it would keep the pump from moving around, too.

I haven't finished building my version of the Unicooler yet, but based on that formula it wasn't hard to determine that a bucket cooler with a computer fan wasn't going to work for my 18' dome, which holds ~1500 cubic feet.

For a swamp cooler to effectively cool, it must be the proper size for the job. A small portable unit, for example, will not adequately cool a large-sized room.

While the output of air conditioners are rated in BTUs (British Thermal Units), evaporative coolers are rated by CFMs (the cubic feet per minute of air that the cooler can blow into your home).

Whether it is for a single room or a whole house, there is a simple formula for determining the proper size of swamp cooler you need. Figure the cubic feet of space you want to cool, and then divide that number by two. The quotient will give you the CFM rating for the proper-sized swamp cooler.

For example, if you have a 1,500 square foot home with 8 foot-high ceilings:

I've seen a couple of people use a float-switch-controlled pump to fill a drip reservoir rather than continuously operating a small pump. I suspect this would have lower overall power consumption. Does anyone see any issues with it?

Jared wrote:I've seen a couple of people use a float-switch-controlled pump to fill a drip reservoir rather than continuously operating a small pump. I suspect this would have lower overall power consumption. Does anyone see any issues with it?

I don't see an issue with it other than potentially overfilling one reservoir or the other depending how you have your pump and switch set up. I'm kind of considering this myself, as it makes it easy to fine tune the water flow without wasting pump power pumping across a flow restriction or something.

Wouldn't it be sweet if you could run your pump based off an input from a digital hygrometer in the air stream(!). Yes I tend to overcomplicate things.

kstlfido wrote:plan to build one of these for my 6' stretch yurt this year. Will the 5-gallon cooler cool that space well enough?

I had an idea about your portable cooler... (which I am REALLY looking forward to trying, your suits last year were very effective!)

The water might start sloshing around a bit while being pulled across a bumpy playa. Similar to car gas tanks, adding some dividers with holes would reduce the sloshing. Thin plastic sheets cut to form an egg-crate and put in the bottom. Added benefit- it would keep the pump from moving around, too.

Hey Kent, I guess that others have mostly answered your question about cooling that amount of space. It does seem like a bit of a stretch for a single fan like what is used in the bucket cooler. As Figjam said, you could do the unicooler or box cooler, which use a larger fan. You could also do a version of the two-fan bucket cooler I did last year (the main challenge being that it is a very tight fit getting both fans on the lid). Or, I suppose you could build two bucket coolers and see how it goes, maybe loaning one of the two to a camp-mate if one turns out to be sufficient for the yurt.

I really like your "dividers with holes" idea for my rolling cooler, and I'm going to experiment with that.